Nut-cracking machine.



E. WooDsoN. I. NUT GRAGKING MACHINE.

APPLJIUATION FILED MAIL?, 1914.

Patentad; Jan. 19,1915.

a sHmTs-sHBET '1.

Mwah l R. E. .WODSONI NUT GRAGKING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED 111111.?, 1914.

1,125,427. l Patena .131119,1915.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

gm@ y vmdam f. 75. 1. M Abbys rR. E. WoonsoN. NUT vGII/MIXING MACHINE.

` 4 N APPLICATION FILED MARI?, 1914. y 1,125,421, v PatentedJan.19,1915.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

g lulllllllllllll|||||||||IIIIIIIlIIIIIlIIlHl as w if section. Fig. V

UNITED sTATEs raTanT ortica.

ROBERT E. WOODSON, OF ST. LOUIS, 11lL'SS0I'IRI.

NUT-CRACKING MACHINE.

maaier.'

Application led March 7, 1914, Serial No. 823,074.

To all ywhom t may concern Be it known that I, ROBERT E. WooDsoN, acitixen of the United States of America, and a resident of the city ofSt. Louis and Stateof Missouri, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Nut-Cracking l\lachines, of which the following is afull, clear, and eXact description, reference being' had to theaccompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification.

My invention relates to a nut cracking machine including jaws betweenwhich the nuts are cracked.

One of the objects of the invention is to provide a nut carrier combinedwith means for' discharging nuts therefrom so that the nuts aredelivered, one at a time, to cracking jaws, the object being to preventthe accidental delivery of two or more nuts to the jaws.

Another object of the invention is to provide a shuttle by which thenuts are loosely supported and moved into engagement with a crackingjaw, the loosely supported nut being free to adjust itself to its properlposition against the 'cracking jaw.

The invention also includes certain details of construction which willbe hereinafter described and pointed out in the claims.

Figure I is a side elevation of my nut cracking machine. Fig.l II is anenlarged detail view of' one of the nut carriers, showing a nut holderand an ejector projecting over the nut. on said holder.

Fig. III is a top or plan view ofthe machine. Fig. IV is a fragmentarytop or plan view, partly in is a perspective view of the shuttle,showing the fixed guide rod upon which the shuttle reciprocates and theejector rods""seeured to said iXed guide rod. Fig. VI lis an enlargedtop or plan view showing 'certain partsinthe positions occupied atv thecompletion of the cracking op eration. Fig. VII is a side elevation ofthe parts shown in Fig. VI.

In the accompanying drawings: 1 designates a support provided withguides y2, in which a Vcarriage A reciprocates. A powershaft 3 mountedin said support is provided with a crank disk 4 connected to thereciproeating carriage A by a pitman 5. Cracking jaws 6 are formed atthe ends ofplunger rods 7, the latter being slidably fitted to bearinglugs 8 and 9 on the carriage A. A

shuttle 10 is slidably mounted on a rod 11 rigidly secured to a lug 12on the support 1.

Specication of Letters Patent. i

Patented Jan. 19, 1915.

.fhe rigid rod 11 extends through the bearing lug 8 'on the carriage LA,and fixed ejector rods 13 are secured to a cross bar 14- at tor rods13are arranged in the plunger rods, ff

for the purpose of dislodging fragments of nuts from the cracking jaws6.

15' designates fixed cracking jaws formed on rods 16 opposing thecracking jaws 6. The rods 16 are adjustably secured to the supportinglug 12 by means of set screws. The nuts to be cracked are introducedinto a hopper 17 having a pair of passageways 17 at its lower end,vthrough which nut carriers 18 operate. Each nut carrier is preferablyin the form of a sprocket chain passing around a drive wheel 19 and anidle wheel 20. Each nutv carrier includes nut holders secure-d to thesprocket chains and adapted to traverse the passageways 17 of the hopper17 to pick up the nuts and deliver them from the hopper to a chute 22,leading from the upper end of the hopper to the point at which the nutsare cracked.l In the machine I have shown there are two nut carriers andtwo sets of cracking devices. The chute 22 is, therefore, divided intotwo passageways by a middle rib 23, and two discharge openings 24e areformed at the lower end of the chute, (Fig. III).

To prevent each of the nut holders 21 from delivering more than one nutat a time, I arrange ejector wheels 25 in the path of movement of thecarriers, below the drive wheels 19, and provide throw-off pins 26 oncertain teeth of said wheels. The drive wheels 19 may also be providedwith throw- 0H pins 26. The ejector wheels 25 are driven by the sprocketchains 18, and the pins 26 project through the sprocket chains at pointsabove the nut holders, so as to return to the hopper alll nuts exceptingthose which lie directly upon the nut holders. Each nut holder,therefore, carries only one nut, and delivers said nut into the chute 22as the nut holder passes over the corresponding drive wheel 19. Thesprocket chains 18 are driven by a drive shaft 27, to which the driveWheels 19 are iixed, and which is provided with a bevel gear `28 meshingwith a pin- The meansjeeiprocating the shuttle 10 compri a'. lever arm33, pivotally support -t its lower end and extending at its upper endinto the shuttle. A leg 34, dependin' from the reciprocating carriage A,

1s looseyl connected to the lever arm 33 Abyv j'link 35, having pin`s'36and 37, adapted to engage opposite sldes of said lever arm 33.

The link vann preferably rests on a pirr 38 carried by the-lever arm. L

39 designates thrust members pivoted to the ,plunger rod. .7, and havingfree ends adapted toen age drive wheels 40, the latter being fixe j riedby the carriage A.

42 designates a `p1n1on meshing with a` rack bar 43 ixedtothetsu'pporting frame 1. During the operation of the carriage A, thepinion 42 is rotated,.due Vto itsengagement with the Xed rack bar 43,and the drive ,wheels arethus driven to yimpart a slight movement tojthethrust members 39, as will be presently described.

In thev operation of my machine, the nuts containedin'the hopper 17 arepicked up by the nutfcarriers 18 and delivered to the chute 22, throughwhich they descend to the discharge openings 24, automatically adjustingthemselves longitudinally of the lchute during theirdescent. At thistime the discharge openings 24 are clo'sledby a.closnre plate 45 carried'by' the shuttle 10. 'During the forward movement of the shuttle, theclosure plate 45 moves beyond the chute discharge openings 24, and thenuts then drop lthrough inlet openings 45a in the closure plate 45,falling into the shuttle where they will lie longitudinally of theshuttle pockets, (see Figs. I and IV). During the rearward movement'ofthe carriage, the shuttle, and- -the plunger rods 7, carried by thecarriage, move toward the 'rigid cracking jaws l16. The nuts .arecarried into engagementwith the crackingjaws 16, and the shuttle andcarnage c ontmue to move rearwardly, thereby retainlng the looselysupported nuts in engagement with the said cracking jaws, and permittingthe ends of the nuts to become properly seated therein. The crackingjaws 6, on the plunger rods 7, engage the nuts, and a continued movementof the 'carriage A forces the rotating drive wheels 40 intoengagementwith the free ends of the thrust members 39.

It should be here stated that the thrust members 39 have a doublefunction, serving as means to imparting movement d' to the plunger rods7 during nut cracking action with .a final quick impulse movement incracking the nuts, and the thrust members being so mounted that they arethrown out of action immediately following the cracking of the nuts,with the result of preventmg mashlng of the nuts between the,jaws.`

' To facilitate the nut cracking action I make to arotatable shaft 41canthrust member.

the thrust membersgof a'form 'illustrated-'in' l Fig'. I, so that thereis provision, for accelerated movement of the plunger rods 7 during theoperation of the drive wheels 40 following the engagement of these drivewheels with the thrust members. The free end of each thrust member whichreceives engagement of l the -corresponding drive wheels is eccentricwith the axis of the `thrust member, or in other words, the distancebetween'the bottom of the free end of the thrust member and the axis ofsaid member is greater than the distance between the top of said freeend and the axis of the Consequently, when the thrust member is engagedby the drive wheel corresponding thereto, asA seen in Fig. I, there isprovlsion for ajorward thrust by the drive wheel against the thrustmember, the force being communicated to the plunger rod to advance thejaw 6 toward the jaw 16. Now as` the drive wheel rotates it .acts toimpart' ail-upward movement to the thrust member 39 with the result ofLcarrying the longer portion of ythe thrust member toward and to a linedrawn longitudinally through the plunger 7 and the axis `of the drivewheel, whereby a uick impulse imparted to the plunger rod causing aquick pressure against the nut that breaks or cracks it more eiectuallythan a slow pres- -rigid or 'stationary cracking jaws by movable ejectorrods 46, arranged in the rigid rods 16 and connected at their rear endsby a cross bar 47. Springs 48 force the cross' bar 47 into engagementwith one end ofa bell crank lever 49, the opposite end of said Y 1 bellcrank lever being engaged with the supporting lug 12. A pivot rod50,fixed to the bell crank lever, isprovided with a trip arm 51, operableby a spring pressedtripping pawl 52 carried by a slide bar 53, thelatter being connected to the carriage by -a long rod 54. When thecarriage moves forwardly, afterthe cracking operation, the tripping pawl52 engages andimparts movement to the trip arm 51, so as to move thebell c'ra'nk lever 49. 'This action causes the l cross bar 47 andejector rods 46 to move forwardly'to eject the nuts from the crackingjaws 15, and the tripping pawl 52 'finally passes beyond the'trip arm52, permitting the springs 48 to restore the ejector rods 46.

Liz-aegee? Y The thrust members 39, pivote'd to the front ends of theplunger rods 7, move downwardly duringthe return movement of thecarriage, and are arrested by'abutment collars 55 formed at the lowerends ol screws 5G.. These screws are adjustable in a plate 57 on the,carriage A. By'adjusting the screws 5G, the starting position of thethrust members 39 may be varied to obtain the desired cracking movement;and, to facilitate such adjustment, the upper ends ofthe screws arepreferablyfnotched to receive a screw driver.

It will be noted that the closure plate 45, carried by lthe shuttle 10,is provided with upturned flanges 45" which extend above the lower endof' the chute 22 to form the side walls of a pair of nut holders at thelower end of the chute.y Each of the nut holders referred 'to consistsof a movable bottom .wall formed by the closure plate 45, a fixeddelivered to the chute drop onto the bottom wall or closure plate 45where they lie directly between the fixed wall 23 and the movable walls45? and itwill be presently understood that this manner of holding thenuts forms an important part of my invention. end of the chute, mayoccupy the position shown at N in Fig. III, in which event the nutswould be held by the opposing side walls of the lnut holder instead ofbeing held by the closure plate 45, and if these opposing'walls werefixed with respect to each other the nut held thereby would not dropinto the shuttle and the succeeding nuts would collect in the chuteinsteadjof passing to the nut cracking devices. To overcome this Iprovide a nut holder having the The nuts, after reaching the lower vfixed sidewall 23 and the movable side walls 45h, and when a nut iscaught between said.

walls as shown at N, Fig. III, it is released and shift-ed to theposition seen at R (Fig.-

III) when the movable wall 45h moves independently of the fixed wall 23.

lfirst named jaw, means for moving said plunger toward said iirst namedjaw, said means including a vertically movable thrust member pivoted tosaid plunger, and'a rotatable drive member for actuating said thrustmember; and an adjustable stop for varying the stroke of saidthrust'member, oii'set laterally from said thrust member and thesaidadjustable stop comprising a screw providefwith an abutn'lent onwhich said thrust member normally rests.

3. In a nut cracking machine, jaws, a carriage for moving one` of saidjaws to ward the other jaw, an ejector rod movable through the lastnamed jaw, a tripable member for operating said ejector rod, a trippingdevice including a pawl for moving said tripable member, and means forsecuring said tripping device to said carriage.

4. In a nut cracking machine, jaws, one of which is movable toward theother, an ejector rod movable through one of said jaws, a tripablemember operable to move said ejector rod, a yieldable tripping devicefor operating said tripable member, means for operating said yieldabletripping device, and a spring for restoring said ejector rod.

5. In a nut cracking machine, nut cracking devices, a receptacle for thenuts to be cracked, and means for conducting nuts from said receptacleto said nut cracking devices; said means including a carrier providedwith a nut holder, an ejector movable over the nut on said holder toprevent the 'delivery of more than one nut by said nut nut on saidholder to prevent the l'delivery' of more than one nut/by said nutholder, and means for operating said ejector in unison with saidcarrier.

'i'.In a nut cracking machine, a pair of jaws, a carriage for moving oneof said jaws toward the other jaw, a shuttle for supporting anutbetweenl said jaws, ashuttle drive member, and a link loosely connectingsaid, shuttle Adrive member to said carriage. f, y

8. In a nut cracking machine, nut cracking devices, a holder for thenuts to be delivered to said nut cracking devices, a chute leading tosaid holder, the latter be? ing located between said chute and the nutcracking devices, said holder being provided with a fixed side wall andamovable side Wall opposing said fixed side wall, the nuts to be crackedbeing positioned between said sidewalls, and means for moving saidmovable side wall to release the nuts from said opposite side walls.

9. In a nut cracking machine, nut cracking devices, a holder for 'thenuts to be delivered to said nut .cracking devices, said holder beingprovided with a fixed side wall and a movable side wall opposing saidfixed side wall, the nuts to be cracked being positionedbetween saidside walls, and

l' means for moving said movable side wall side wall opposing said fixedside wall, the 15 holder being provided with a movable bot-- 'tom Wall,a fixed sidewall and a. movable nuts to be cracked being positionedbetween said opposing walls, and means for moving membelj.

saidmovable walls to release the nuts from said o posingjwalls.

11. a nut cracking machine, a pair of jaws, one of which is movabletoward Ithe other, a thrust member pivotally connected to one of saidjaws, and a rotatable membei' forl moving said thrust member1ongitudinally and rotatably; said thrust memer being so shaped .as toprovide for .acs celerated movement of said' movable ]aw during pivotalmovement of 'said thrust RoBT. E. woonsou.` In the resence of u J .uMCCAULEY.`

